Nowhere but the Future
by MoonlightUmbreon
Summary: When Danny has a night terror and shoots an ectoplasmic energy blast from his hand, Maddie begins to question things. It all just gets worse when Vlad shows up with a proposition... -Pre PP, Post D-stabilized- -COMPLETE!- Now rated T for slight violence.
1. Part 1

**Disclaimer**

Surprisingly enough, I don't happen to own Danny Phantom. And if you want to buy it, go and ask Butch Hartman. And don't be surprised if he denies, if it were my show I wouldn't sell it for the world!

**Author's Note**

This is a twoshot and a kind of preview to a fic I'm thinking about (but will not be starting for a long time) at the same time. Hope you all enjoy it[Pre PP, but after D-stabilized

NOTE THAT THIS WILL BE A TWOSHOT.

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**Nowhere but the Future**

**MoonlightUmbreon**

Danny was in a fitful sleep as Maddie entered his room. There was tiny beads of sweat pouring from his face, and he was turning constantly, muttering mostly incoherent things. The few that were loud enough to here were statements such as, "I'm not you!" and "No, please don't... You. Leave. Them. ALONE!!". maddie felt a small, wet tear trickle down her face; no wonder he hated to sleep, with night terrors like that it was no wonder. Every night...

"There there..." Maddie said quietly, softly rubbing his forehead. "I'm here Danny, I'm here..."

The raven-haired boy continued to thrash in his bed. Maddie heard him mutter something else, "Goin' Ghost..." her son's dreams were so mysterious. He often said strange things like that in his sleep. Frowning, she gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.

Danny tossed again, mumbling inaudibly until suddenly screaming, "STOP! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT TO THEM!!" then he raised his hand, which started to become a glowing green colour. Maddie watched in shock, as an ecto-plasmic beam was fired straight at the wardrobe door, creating a searing, smoking hole. Maddie gasped; she was sure that that was_ ectoplasm. _And, it had come from her son's hand as he slept through night terrors! Her first thought was that he was overshadowed. But... it just didn't seem right for some reason. The question was, how could Danny do that? Did he even consciously _know_ he could do it?

His hands were still wavering with bright green ecto-energy. Maddie backed away, although unaware she was doing so. Her son suddenly let out a deafening scream, his eyes snapping open as he sat bolt upright. He looked around quickly, spotting his mother. After he saw her, he'd visibly calmed, but his eyes scared her. His eyes were a bright, emerald green, glowing through the darkness of his own room.

Danny looked quickly down at his hands and gasped as he saw the energy radiating off them. Immediately the energy went away and he looked shocked, eyes becoming their normal, icy blue. Maddy looked at him with a face full of shock and more-so, concern. "...Danny?"

"...Mom..." he whispered. "Oh _crud._"

"Is there something you're not telling me...?"

"I... uh, no!" Danny replied. "There's nothing wrong!"

"There might be nothing _wrong, _but there is something that's _up._ Please, tell me what's going on..."

"It's nothing!" Danny hissed, turning over under his covers. "You know, just me having night terrors, nothing really unusual."

Maddie shook her head. "Don't you give me the cold shoulder, young man! You shot an ectoplasmic blast from your _hand _in your sleep, and made a smokey hole in your wardrobe. Now tell me, _why _do you have control over ectoplasm, and also, where is the ectoplasm coming from in the first place?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Danny said, still facing the oppisite direction. "I don't know what you're playing at, but please, just let me sleep..."

"Danny, your eyes were the same ecto-plasmic green as many, many ghosts! There _is _something going on, why won't you tell me...? We used to be so close..."

Maddie noticed her son was getting rather shaky and nervous. A more intense nervousness than that he shows when we show him the newest in our ghost-hunting weaponry designs, so this was quite shocking to her. Quite suddenly, he became clear and transparent, although still visible, and fell through his bed, landing with a thump on the floor beneath.

"Danny, tell me." she said, devoid of any emotion. "Tell me what's going on." he crawled out from underneath the bed and got back on top of it.

"No. There's nothing going on."

Maddie found herself losing patience. "You're displaying signs of ghost powers, for Pete's sake! Danny, what happened to you?! You just can't be a ghost... I know you can't..."

"All the more reason to leave my room and think nothing more of this, then." Danny replied, as a blueish mist rose from his breath. His head fell into his pillow and Maddie thought she'd heard a muffled "No...".

Danny's head rose from his pillow. "Mum, I've got to go to the bathroom." without waiting for an answer, he stood up and bolted in the appropriate direction, only to be grabbed by an invisible force.

"Why hello, Daniel. What a surprise to see you here." a dissembodied voice sneered.

"Gee, it's only my own house. Wouldn't expect to see me here, would you fruit loop? You're thicker than the sugar in that cereal."

Vlad appeared into full view. "Now honestly Daniel, you know my name is not 'fruit loop'. I have come here to deal with you as the businesman that I am."

Maddie quickly hid around the wall, where she couldn't be seen, and peered around it. There, she saw the Wisconsin Ghost, holding Danny by his hand and letting him dangle from it. "Let go of my son!" she yelled, whipping out an ecto-gun, ready to fire. But Vlad was much to quick for her, firing his own pink ecto-blast and completely incinirating it.

"Ah... Maddie... So good of you to join us. You see, I was just about to make a deal with young Daniel here concerning you."

"You leave her out of it, fruit loop!" Danny said, swinging himself to try and kick the ghost's torso. However it just became intangibl and rendered the feeble attack completely useless.

Vlad shook his head. "With all honesty, do you really think that you could do that to me?"

"Funny. I've never known you to be honest."

Maddie couldn't believe her ears; her son was back-chatting to a ghost. And not just _any _ghost, either. This was the highly dangerous Wisconsin Ghost. Right underneath that Danny Phantom in Jack and her's list of 'Most Wanted Ghosts'.

"Now, before you most rudely interupt again, Daniel, like I said, I have a proposition. Right here, right now, reveal yourself to your mother. If you don't or try to reveal mine, I won't just _destroy _you, I'll make sure you have a _very _long _and _painful death, where they'll not find your body until the Winter is over and gone. What do you say?"

"I. Say. No." Danny said firmly.

"Okay then." Vlad said rather casually. "But, what if I where to, say, take it out on your oxymoron of a father? Then how would you feel, because you _know _that I will."

Maddie was actually feeling left out, as she watched Danny and the Wisconsin Ghost insult and deal with each other. She was very impressed with the calm way Danny was handling himself, but what did 'reveal yourself' mean? Did it have something with the ecto-blast, the accidental shift out of phase or the bright, haunted green eyes...?

She didn't know. All she did know, was that her little boy was in great danger, and apparently, so was her husband.

**Author's Note:**

Moonlight: There you go, the first part of Nowhere but the Future. The title will make much more sense when I finish the other half, trust me.

Kris: Anyway, I think Moonlight did this because she needed a small break from Forever a Phantom and the other multi-chapters that she's juggling.

Moonlight: Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! Please review, remember I love constructive criticism XD however I don't like flames, and no one else does either. So do everyone a favour and keep your mouth shut if you only have bad things to say. Hope you enjoyed this!

Peace,

MoonlightUmbreon


	2. Part 2

**Author's Note**

This is the second part to _Nowhere but the Future. _Hope you guys like this and yes, I apologize for the first short chapter. This one is longer. Also sorry I haven't been around, my computer broke down again. . 

**Thanks to...**

Skandragon Blackheart, Invader Johnny, Master of Minds, luckygirl777, DPcrazy, GladiatorQueen, AvatarKatara38, xheartkreuzx, zizzy333, inukagome15, Shining Zephyr and Dannyphantomfn2. Thanks for the support. (:

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**Nowhere but the Future**

**Part 2**

**MoonlightUmbreon**

Vlad squeezed Danny's hand with a crushing grip, making him close his eyes tightly to prevent himself screaming out. "You're the one who picked the hard way, Daniel." he said menacingly, bright red eyes narrowing. "So, like the _gentleman _I am, I'll do it the hard way. Reveal yourself now, or it will be slower and more painful than usual."

"Go away you sick and twisted, sadistic fruit loop!" Danny yelled. "Why are you so bent on _marrying my mum!?_"

Maddie actually choked. "Marry me?!"

"That's right mum," Danny replied. "He wants to kill dad, marry you and make me and probably Jazz his personal slaves!"

Maddie was so angry that she couldn't move or even say anything back. She just stood there, shaking with fury. Vlad's eyes opened wide. "I'll kill you, Daniel." he said in a low whisper that made him sound psychopathic. "And then I'll kill your idiot father and your nosy sister." the worst part of it, was that he didn't sound angry. His words were an emotional void. Danny's eyes became the same, haunted green that Maddie had seen from before, his face becoming one of rage.

"Kill me, will you?" he growled in a low voice. "Not before I do the same to you." and before Maddie could even wonder about how Danny could 'kill' a ghost, his hands began to waver with ectoplasmic energy so strong it crackled and sparked. Vlad was thrown right down the stairs by the force, Danny standing above, looking angrier at him than Maddie even was.

"It's about time you put up a little fight, you know." Vlad said as he stood up straight and returned the favor, with a bright pink blast of his own. It smashed into Danny, throwing him backwards. But he just got straight back up and fired another one back, so much fury put into it that sparks jumped off it as it flew towards it's unfortunate target.

Vlad yelled out and gritted his pointed teeth as it hit him, contorted with rage. Quite suddenly, he flew towards Maddie and swept her off the floor, flying upwards and phasing through the roof.

"Let me go!"

"Never again, my dear!" Vlad replied, soaring higher into the sky.

Maddie looked at him. "And what on earth is that supposed to mean?!" he didn't answer. She looked down, and low-and-behold, the Ghost Boy was flying up behind them. Great, he was probably in on this too. And of all times to notice something, she noticed that he had the same hairstyle as Danny_. That's odd..._

Danny _Phantom _flew up and shot at Vlad with a bright green ecto-beam, narrowly missing Maddie. The only drawback was that she slipped from his grasp and began to fall. She yelled as she fell downwards, hair whipping in her face.

Then something grabbed her around the waist. It took a few seconds for her brain to register that she was no longer plummeting to her death. But then she looked at the person who had saved her - the Ghost Boy... something in her stomach turned at that point, most probably the knowledge that she was being held at the mercy of the ghost at the top of their hit-list, who-knows how many feet in the air. Quickly, he flew her down to the ground.

"I'm sorry you got involved in this mess..." _What? _Maddie thought. _He's apologizing?! But..._

Danny turned back to the Wisconsin Ghost and jumped up through the air, slamming into him at full-force. Danny then immediately delivered what looked like an ecto-bomb at his opponent, exploding on contact and sending him spiraling through the air and smashing into the ground.

"Don't you dare ever, _ever _try that again!" Danny yelled. Vlad paid no mind and got up slowly, still smoking with green ectoplasmic residue. He then darted to Maddie as quickly as he could and picked her up. Danny flew downwards and just as his fist made contact with his opponent's face, Vlad teleported, Danny and Maddie along for the ride.

Maddie fell hard on her back, but thankfully not hard enough to do any serious damage. As she looked around herself, she noticed she was in a lab of sorts - much like her own, except the ghost hunting weapons were often red or pink instead of green. As she looked, she spotted Phantom and Vlad over next to a few shelves. Vlad's face looked smashed-in and he was currently absorbed in choking Phantom. Not that he needed air, but he still looked as though in a considerable amount of pain.

"You thought you could beat me at my own game?! You're an insolent moron, just like your father!" Vlad spat venomously. "I hope this hurts!" he grabbed a strange-looking device from the shelf beside him, and jabbed Danny in the stomach with it. Danny yelled out as he was fried by the Plasmius Maximus, causing him to revert to his human form. Maddie's mouth hung open slightly as Vlad let go of her boy's throat and let him fall to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"Danny!" Maddie cried as she ran over to him. "Oh my God... Danny, Danny! Can you hear me?!"

Danny opened his eyes slowly. "I'm fine..." he said weakly, recovering from the shock. "We have to get out of here..."

"You'll do no such thing!" Vlad said, standing over them. "Now that you're powerless, Daniel, you have nowhere to run. Especially if I keep on shocking you every three hours."

Maddie turned to Vlad. "When you do something like _that,_" she paused for a moment. "to _my own son,_" she paused again, putting so much hatred into her words Vlad instinctively moved backwards. "You. Do. Not. Get. Away!" From her belt, she whipped the Fenton Peeler out and used it, covering herself in steel. She fired directly at Vlad, causing his 'costume' to peel away from his skin and leave a pair of Maddie-print boxers.

"_That_ is just plain disturbing." Danny remarked as Maddie's eyes became wider than the width of Jack's waist.

"What the hell... You sick, twisted... FRUIT LOOP!"

"I AM NOT A FRUIT LOOP!" Vlad screamed at the top of his lungs. "Sorry." he added to Maddie.

"You're sick." Maddie said as she looked at him with disgust. "Sick and twisted. I. Hate. You."

It seemed to strike Vlad like a baseball bat to the head. He fell through the air and to his knees. "Please, please forgive me my dear!"

"Now why would I do that?" She said, spitting venom with every word. Danny had never seen her so merciless and angry. She put the Fenton peeler back into her belt and pulled an ecto-rifle out, pointing it right at Vlad's head. "You have _five seconds_ to get me and my… son …back to our home, leave, and never show your face in Amity Park _again_!"

The ominous charging of the rifle began. Vlad looked at his 'victim' again, then grabbed the end and snatched it from her hands at blinding speed. He then pointed it directly at Danny.

"You should know that the Plasmius Maximus prevents a ghost from using any of its powers. It does not make them 'go away'. So if I shoot young Daniel right now, it will affect him like he is the ghost he is." Vlad paused for a moment, grinning menacingly at a startled Maddie. "Like _this._"

Danny screamed out in pain and curled up tightly. After the beam stopped enveloping him, he shook uncontrollably in almost a seizure state, although completely conscious. Maddie gasped and ran over to him, pulling him into a suffocating hug, feeling his convulsing body slip from her hands every so often.

"It's okay Danny, I've got you. I've got you…"

"No, it is _not_ okay." Vlad said as he stood. "I was just going to take _you. _I thought _he'd _be asleep. He just hung on for the ride! He. Will. Pay!" with that said, Vlad this time shot the two of them. For some reason, Maddie wasn't panicking when it hit her. Even though it hurt excruciatingly, the thing she thought, for some reason above all else, was _Mental note: Ghost weapons work just as well, perhaps even better on humans._

Then the world became black.

--

Maddie could feel herself being shaken. "Gnuh?" she said dozily.

"Mum, wake up."

"What is it Danny…?" Maddie asked, her words slurred from being fairly groggy. "It's too dark to be getting up…"

"No, mum! We've been attacked by Plasmius, remember?"

"What?" Maddie was now fully awake. Last night's memories flooded into her mind. "Where are we?"

"I dunno, it's just a room. My ghost powers work now but the walls are phase-proof. There's only a candle lighting the place and there's no windows and we're on top of a really big bed."

"Phase…?" Maddie sounded confused. Then she began to show some understanding. "Oh, phasing… of… course."

Danny looked slightly guilty as she said that, but the trace disappeared as he began to think rapidly. "I just don't know how to get out…"

Maddie looked around. The room was almost completely bare. The walls were made of grey bricks, the floor of floorboards – nothing fancy. The bed they were on was comfortable enough, but the mattress was a little on the hard side. And next to them on one small dressing table with no draws, was a single candle, illuminating the place just enough to see. There wasn't even a door in the room.

Danny got off the bed and approached the wall. "See, watch this." he wasn't going to deny what he was now, especially with what he and his mother had been through together. His hand became transparent blue and pushed at the wall, but it wouldn't go through even if he pushed extremely hard.

"Danny…" Maddie whispered. "What… _are _you?"

"I should have told you and dad ages ago… I'm really, _really _sorry…"

"Danny, please, just tell me."

"I'm a half ghost…" he sounded guilty. "And I should have told you…"

"But that's impossible!"

"Then what am I?" Danny questioned. "A ghost who has the ability to look like its former self? I know I'm not that. I never died."

"It was… the portal accident, wasn't it?" Danny nodded, sitting back down on the bed. "Oh Danny… I should have locked the door so you couldn't get down there! I'm so sorry! Please, can you forgive me…?"

"Mum! It's okay! I guess I… I'm kinda glad it happened… It's given me a chance no one else has. But now, shouldn't we focus on getting out?"

"Oh, um… yes."

Danny transformed and flew up to the ceiling, trying to phase through it. Predictably, it didn't work at all. "We're stuck…" he said hopelessly. "Got any other ideas?"

Maddie shook her head as she saw her son floating above her head. Not Phantom, her _son. _And he was right, they were stuck. There was literally no way in and no way out, so the ghost-shielded walls must have been activated after they were thrown in there.

Danny landed back onto the bed, sighing deeply. "I'm going to kill him for this…"

"How are you going to _kill _a ghost?" Maddie found herself asking suddenly.

"You're being too literal; it was just a figure of speech." Danny replied, reverting to his seemingly insignificant self. "What do we do now?"

"There's nothing we can do, we're better off to wait for a while and see if anyone comes to feed us, then run."

--

Maddie and her son spent the next few hours just talking. He began to tell her why his grades were bad, why he was always missing curfew and why he was choir-dodging. Maddie, despite the fact she was locked in a room, was quite pleased to finally realize what was going on with her son. He also began to tell her of the more-than-daily fights he got into, that, she was not so pleased about, but interested nonetheless. Not a word was mentioned about Vlad's status.

Maddie's stomach growled loudly. Danny looked over, frowning. "Don't worry, he'll give _you _food. He likes you too much."

"That's disturbing." Maddie commented. "Hah… he sounds a little like Vlad Masters too… I've never noticed how similar the two are – hold on… Danny, are they… one and the same?!"

"Umm…" Danny started. If he revealed Vlad's secret, his own secret would be on the line to the rest of the world too. "No, I don't think so. They're too different beings, remember the time when he met Plasmius and attacked him? You're right though, they are quite similar… Maybe it's his dad or something."

Maddie discarded the thought quickly with distaste. That would mean two creepy fruit loops were attracted to her. Really, she'd prefer to think of them as one and the same.

Danny transformed into his ghost half and sighed. "He better come soon…"

"Why did you…?"

"I don't get hungry like this." Danny replied. "And I didn't eat much for dinner last night, so…"

Maddie nodded. "I see."

--

Danny, after a fair bit of waiting, decided to check one more thing.

"Mum! I can phase through the floor! He forgot the floor!"

Maddie woke up from where she was resting with a start. "You can?!"

"Yeah, come here! I think we might be able to get out!" Maddie got up, feeling slightly dizzy from doing so so quickly for a second, but shook it off. Danny abruptly grabbed her hand, turning her completely intangible.

"That feels strange." she remarked. Danny just shrugged.

"I'm used to it."

And with that, Danny pulled her down through the floor. Underneath, there was a big mirror-like device. It showed an incomprehensible place, and neither Danny nor Maddie paid as much attention to it as they did to the door. They both approached it, only to find Vlad Masters come straight through it.

"Oh! You two have been trapped here by that Wisconsin Ghost, have you? Well, there's no way out through here… It's where I just came from."

"Yeah, yeah, you know this just seems like another one of your 'incredibly well-planned coincidences'." Danny said angrily. "Let us through."

"No, seriously, we're sealed in by a ghost shield, your floorboards are the only ones that idiot of a Wisconsin Ghost couldn't shield over. See for yourself, Daniel."

Danny pushed past Vlad and went into the other bare room. He tried every wall, the ceiling, and the floor, even different places on the walls, but found he could phase through none. Maddie watched her son as he desperately tried to find a way out, each try being in vain.

"See, Daniel? No way in and no way out."

Maddie looked at Vlad's facial features. He even had the same facial features as that vampire-like Wisconsin Ghost. "You're him!" she yelled suddenly. "You're the Wisconsin ghost!"

"I am not!" Vlad said back quickly. Too quickly.

"Oh yes you are!" Maddie shot back. She tried to reach for a ghost weapon in her belt, but they were all gone. She must have been stripped of them while she was being dragged down to this place.

"She figured it out on her own!" Danny yelled back into where the two were standing. "So since we both know _your _secret, why don't you go on and tell us how to get out?"

"You have as much chance of that as winning the lottery." Vlad said, changing to Plasmius, and flying up so his face was right next to Danny's. "Run, Daniel."

"The only thing I'm running from is your breath!" he exclaimed, shooting at Vlad with a beam of green ectoplasm. "Let us outta here!"

"Time out!" The world froze as a ghost stepped out of a newly-created ghost portal. He flew around to both Maddie and Danny, placing a time medallion over each of their necks.

Danny blinked a few times then realized what was going on. Maddie looked somewhat scared when she realized that the only things in the world that weren't frozen in their place were Danny, her, and an unknown ghost.

"Clockwork!" Danny said. Maddie looked at him strangely for a minute before realizing, as a ghost himself; Danny must have had a few ghostly acquaintances. "Why are you here?"

"We are all in grave danger." Clockwork said. "Vlad stole the time portal, and when it is out of its place from my lair, where it is not meant to be, it can rip through the space-time continuum."

"Why can't you just take it back?" Danny asked. Clockwork's face became sour.

"Because those idiotic observants couldn't see the danger if it smacked them in the face, and are using all their powers to stop me from doing so. The both of you must go through and face the future. The part in time that the time portal is currently set to will take you to the future. The very, very distant future. It is there you will be able to retrieve the portal, not here. Once you do so, I will be able to send you back. It won't be easy, but it must be done."

Maddie gritted her teeth. This ghost sounded wise, but they all had their tricks. You could never be too careful when it came to ghosts. "Give me a reason why I should trust you."

Danny turned to Maddie. "Mum, he's the Master of Time. He's saved our entire family's lives before."

Clockwork nodded in affirmation. "I have seen it, there is a 76 percent chance that you'll both be fine. Now quickly, before it's too late. Time in!"

Vlad moved quickly and began to strangle Danny again. However, Danny managed to wriggle free and flew towards his mother, sweeping her off her feet and flying directly to the portal.

"Where are you going?!" an enraged Vlad yelled.

"Nowhere but the future!" Danny said as he dived head-first into the time portal, Maddie along for the ride. "I just hope that Clockwork's right about all of this…"

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**Author's Note**

Moonlight: Wow, that was over 3000 words! That's the longest for a chapter that I've ever written! Or in this case, a part.

Kris: -looks over Moonlight's other stuff- she's right!

Moonlight: Anyway, this story obviously is a starting point for another. However, I'm not going to start it until I lighten the load already on my shoulders. Heh, sorry guys. Anyways I hope you enjoyed it and please review!

Peace,

MoonlightUmbreon


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